Pirating Microsoft Office is a non-issue...

... as by far most illegal copies can be found on home PC's and small businesses where every buck/pound/euro counts. If they don't use macro's, and i bet 99.99% doesn't, they can all move on to OpenOffice.

So what could be the hidden agenda behind this wave of puritanity?

The thing with hidden agenda's is that they are, well, hidden. So it's difficult to say from the taken measures itselves. So, let's go one step further, and look at the possible EFFECTS of these prohibitions.

If one prohibits pornography, or extreme porn as in the UK, you will want to block the distribution of this illegal stuff. Once the main distribution channels of porn were magazines and VHS tapes. These have been on sale since the invention of these media, and nobody objected.

Let's not forget that in the 80's the best videotape technology was called Philips Video 2000. It lost the battle agains Betamax and VHS in an early stage thanks to the scarse availablility of porn titles!

Today, what is the main distribution channel of pornography these days? It's most definitly the Internet!

So, if you want to block the distribution of (extreme) pornography today, you'll have to apply some kind of filtering of the internet! Interesting, isn't it?

Look around you right now and tell me, what is one of the most worrying developments on the Internet right now? If you think like me, you will say 'internet filtering'.

Can't it be that the powers in place are simply looking for excuses to apply internet filtering?

Many have come by. Let's take a look, shall we?

- Australia, the most well known issue, wants to block any kind of content that's unsuitable for chilldren. Above all, that includes pornography. How can a parent be against something noble like that?

- Germany wants to block childporn sites. I don't think anyone in it's right mind can argue against that.

- Several countries would like to block access to The Pirate Bay and/or file sharing. The reasons we all know. People are 'stealing' stuff, you know, like bloody shoplifters!

I know there are other countries, but they don't spring to mind at the moment.

Also, i'm not going to talk about China, Iran, North Korea and the likes, as the reasons for their blocking are clearly political and out in the open.

Anyway, maybe all the 'goals' and the 'measures' should be turned around?

The GOAL is to put deep packet inspection filters on the internet, and the MEASURE is to forbid and block the distribution of (extreme/child) pornography and stop file sharing networks.

Once filtering is in place, it can be used to block all kinds of undesired material. Just like many suspect it will be used eventually.

Apparently the powers in place are Afraid as Hell of the free and uncontrolled/uncontrollable flow of information. Newspapers and TV/Radio stations can be put under control, but hundreds of thousends of politically engaged blogs can only be filtered.

Holland a low-tax country ?!?!?!?!

Side effects or a goal in itself?

Taken into account that the 9/11 attacks were very probably inside jobs, and the UK underground attack has a very similar signature (that is, an exercise scenario that turned reality during the exercise) , one might be forgiven to think that the mentioned side-effects, (e.g. restriction of privacy and a culture of fear) where the real ultimate goal of the whole operation!

Weight savings ?

[quote]The Volt will also see the début of a Bose sound system that's also heralded as "energy efficient" and said to be 30 per cent smaller, 40 per cent lighter and to use half as much energy as conventional Bose sound systems do.[/quote]

That's all nice and good!

Too bad that the rest of the car is made of traditional and heavy.... STEEL!!!!

So someone can explain me what saving 3kg on an audio system is going to change on a 1000+kg car anyway.

And then the energy savings: I don't know how much leccy an average car system consumes, but i'm sure its absolutely peanuts compared to a 100KW engine.

What side of the road are you on?

"The past five years have seen a 47 per cent rise in the number of foreign drivers involved in accidents in Britain, while foreign lorry drivers are three times more likely to be involved in collisions in this country than their British counterparts."

So, what could possibly be the reason of this?

Maybe it's just that curious fact that in Brittain the people tend to use the left side of the road, while in the whole of Europe people tend to use the right side!

The conclusion might be simply that: YOU'RE DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD, MAN !!!

Freezing cold engines

While compressing the air makes it become hot, be sure that decompressing it (inside the engine) will make it become freezing cold!

It will surely need some heath/cold distribution system with liquid and a radiator.

In the summer this shouldn't be too much of a problem (in France, at least), as can absorb enough heath energy from the air. It could also used the heat inside the car, doubling as a natural airconditioning.